The shore by Katie Runde

Name of Book: The Shore

Author: Katie Runde

ISBN: 9781982180171

Publisher: Scribner 

Type of book: USA, contemporary, New Jersey, living by beach, brain cancer, mother/daughter relationship, dying father, summer love, necessity, out of towners, jobs, summer season, real estate care company,  

Year it was published: 2022

Summary:

Set over the course of one summer, this perfect beach read follows a mother and her two daughters as they grapple with heartbreak, young love, and the weight of family secrets.

Brian and Margot Dunne live year-round in Seaside, just steps away from the bustling boardwalk, with their daughters Liz and Evy. The Dunnes run a real estate company, making their living by quickly turning over rental houses for tourists. But the family’s future becomes even more precarious when Brian develops a brain tumor, transforming into a bizarre, erratic version of himself. Amidst the chaos and new caretaking responsibilities, Liz still seeks out summer adventure and flirting with a guy she should know better than to pursue. Her younger sister Evy works in a candy shop, falls in love with her friend Olivia, and secretly adopts the persona of a middle-aged mom in an online support group, where she discovers her own mother’s most vulnerable confessions. Meanwhile, Margot faces an impossible choice driven by grief, impulse, and the ways that small-town life in Seaside has shaped her. Falling apart is not an option, but she can always pack up and leave the beach behind.

The Shore is a powerful, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting novel infused with humor about young women finding sisterhood, friendship, and love in a time of crisis. This big-hearted family saga examines the grit and hustle of running a small business in a tourist town, the ways we connect with strangers when our families can’t give us everything we need, and the comfort to be found in embracing the pleasures of youth while coping with unimaginable loss.

Characters:

Main characters include Liz, Margot and Evy. Liz is the oldest daughter, sort of a perfectionist maybe who wants to feel and be like other teenage girls. Despite her father's state, she doesn't want people feeling sorry for her and she ends up not telling her summer love about it. Margot is the mother who is torn between responsibility of caring for her husband as well as the business of vacation homes and her two teenage daughters. Quite often she neglects her daughters. Evy is the youngest, identifying as bisexual and missing her mom, she joins in a Facebook support group that her mom is at to make sure she doesn't miss out on her mom's thoughts and wishes. 

Theme:

Read it from cover to cover but no idea what I should have gleaned from it

Plot:

The story is in third person narrative from Liz's, Margots and Evys points of views. The characters are all definitely distinctive and will be remembered and can be told apart easily. The story also takes place over the whole summer, and I am sorry, but it doesn't make sense to me. I have no idea what the women were trying to accomplish in their lives. The mother, Margot, was trying to take care of responsibilities around the business she owned with her husband Brian while grieving and feeling angry. Her two daughters, Liz and Evy, were also trying to balance the cruel loss versus having a teenage life, but the ways they went about is odd to me. The youngest joins in a special support group online to see what her mom will write, while the oldest, umm, works and tries to get rid of her shameful virginity? 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

N/A

Opinion:

I honest to gods wanted to like this book. I really did. But I ended up having a miserable reading experience. For me it's not a good sign when I am reading a book and am reminded of books I couldn't stand in the past. I do my best to be emphatic and to relate to different situations, but in this case I couldn't relate to situation of grief, in particular losing a father. ( In real life my father has done his best to make sure I don't feel close to him, and often treats women in his life as garbage through verbal and emotional abuse...) a book that is very similar to this one is by Ella  Joy Olsen, where the sweet bird sings. For those who are curious, I have gone through a lot of losses, namely my one and only best friend dying in a car accident six years ago; my maternal grandparents died five years ago. So yeah, this one is definitely on polarizing list, either you love it or hate it. 

This was given for review 

1 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)